


Wasted Years

by doctormarimccoy



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, M/M, X-Men: Days of Future Past Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-12
Packaged: 2018-02-04 11:25:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1777342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctormarimccoy/pseuds/doctormarimccoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles and Kitty managed to find a way for Erik to return to 1973 instead of Logan. Erik is determined to fix what he's broken, and that includes Charles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wasted Years

**Author's Note:**

> Hooray for crappy summaries! I swear, I can't come up with either summaries or titles, so I'm terribly sorry that neither is the best. But I promise, the story is bound to be better. Please note, I didn't have a beta reader for this, and I'm terrible with tenses, so if there are any mistakes in the writing, please, feel free to let me know! 
> 
> This work is mainly based off of this tumblr post: http://erikandcharles.tumblr.com/post/87203811357/you-know-what-would-have-made-x-men-dofp-perfect

In a perfect world, Charles Francis Xavier would never have been paralyzed. Erik Lehnsherr would never have done the things he did; he would have never killed Shaw, wouldn't have ever even needed to deflect the bullet that had paralyzed his best friend. The lifelong war between the human and mutant races would have never began, and so many of their kind wouldn't have been lost.

This would couldn't be any farther from that fantasy.

There are so few of them now, so many mutants have been wiped out by the Sentinels now. There are very few left, and they're growing weaker and weaker against the Sentinels. After all, you can only fight for so long against a race that can adapt to any power you throw at them. The pain and suffering of it all is almost too much for Erik to bear, and although he's not a telepath, he's sure that it must be much worse for Charles. It was one thing to simply watch one's species be nearly wiped out, but it was another thing entirely to feel their suffering and their sorrow as their lives ended. The telepath has been through so much, and Erik is tempted to reach out to him, to comfort the man that he loved. But he could not. They didn't have the time.

Their team-or, whatever is left of it, had managed to find a safe place to hide for the time being. The Sentinels hadn't found them, not yet. But they would. They always did. If they didn't do anything, they would be wiped out, there was no doubt about that. They had to take action if they hoped to change anything. But if they were to do that, they couldn't do it in this time. No, they had to stop this at the source, at the beginning.

They had to go back in time. Back to when Erik was a foolish young man, and Charles a broken one. Back to when they had wasted so much time fighting; back to when they had both made oh so many mistakes. And then they were going to fix them. Or at least, that was what they hoped to do. They had to fix a rather big one, sadly. Their task was one that they absolutely could not fail at: they had to prevent Mystique, or as Charles had known her, Raven, from shooting Trask, the man who invented the Sentinels himself. Now, normally, Erik would not have had any problem with his death, be it his past or present self. Sure, Charles would be a bit squeamish about it, but he would have let it go if it weren't for the consequences of Raven's actions. Because she was the reason that the Sentinels that hunted them could destroy them so easily. She had been captured after Trask's death, and her DNA had been used so that the machines invented to destroy them were foolproof. And it did just that, allowing them to morph to assist them in the defeat of anyone they pleased.

Erik once knew a mutant that had the ability to adapt to survive. The Sentinels reminded him greatly of him, except...there was one small difference. These machines, no, these monsters adapted to kill.

Charles and Erik had already decided what to do quite a long time ago. They had to stop Raven, and they had to fix everything from start to finish. And finally, the pieces of their plan were beginning to come together. They were fortunate enough to have met a mutant that could assist them in that endeavor, a mutant who could send someone's consciousness back in time. A young girl by the name of Kitty Pride, whom was a very talented young mutant to say the least. Very smart.

The only problem was that the force of the travel had its side effects. It was very unlikely that this plan would work. Kitty could send someone back a couple weeks, maybe a month, but going back decades? That was an entirely different story. She wasn't sure that it was even possible. It would rip the subject's brain apart if it was failed. Logan had offered to go, but Erik refused.

Perhaps it was simply his stubborn attitude speaking, but Erik knew that it had to be him that made the journey back in time. It was almost as if it was calling to him, as real and reachable as the metal that he sensed all around him. Erik wasn't exactly someone who believed in fate, but if he didn't know any better, he would have said that he was destined to go back. Of course, that was simply crazy, and there was no such thing as fate, and even if there was, it would be cruel and monumental in the least.

But regardless, Erik would not take no for an answer.

"You're insane, you would die as soon as I sent you back!" Kitty tried to reason with the metal-bender, glancing over at Professor Xavier as she spoke. "I told you, I can't do it! You'd have to have a way to snap back, and for your mind to heal as fast as it's ripped apart!" she exclaimed, gesturing over at the professor. Surely he could talk some sense into the man.

The professor wheeled forward, eerily silent as he reached out to Erik, placing a hand on his shoulder gently. Erik instantly looked over, a pleading look in his eyes as the unspoken words flooded his mind. He knew Charles could hear them, he always could. Always had.

_'There has to be a way, Charles. You have the most powerful mind in the universe, and this girl...she has the power to go with it. There has to be a medium that you two can reach. If you work together...there's got to be a way. You calmed my mind once, I'm sure that you can do it again. Just for longer this time.'_

After a moment of thought, Charles nods, not a sound escaping his lips as he makes his way over to Kitty. She looks dumbfounded, and her expression speaks volumes. She's confused, she's scared, and she's most definitely tired. Erik feels bad for her, and for some reason feels guilty that a woman so young and with so much potential as she has to endure this burden. After what feels like eons of silence-which is not a good thing when you're being constantly tracked by bloodthirsty machines-Kitty nods at the professor, and Charles breaks the silence as he speaks.

"There is a way that one can survive the trip. But it is dangerous, and if there is the slightest mistake, it will be fatal." he says, looking directly at Erik. "Are you sure that you wish to do this, old friend?" he asks, and for a moment Erik thinks he notices a hint of nervousness in Charles' eyes, something he has very rarely seen in his life. But regardless, Erik knows that he must do this. If he doesn't, they'll die, all of them. He gives Charles a nod, taking a step forward as he begins to explain the process.

"Kitty can send you back to 1973, which is the easiest part. You'll wake up in your younger self's consciousness. As we've never done this before, there may be side effects that we don't know about. Hopefully, they'll be temporary. If not, then I can only hope that they will not hinder you on your journey. Now, as Kitty said, normally this trip would tear your brain to shreds, but I believe that most of it is not necessarily physical damage, but mental. So, if I can manage to keep your mind in check, you should be able to go back easily. If you still want to, that is." he finishes, awaiting Erik's response.

At first, Erik says nothing, and merely steps forward towards Charles, who looks a tad bit confused at first. Erik's hand reaches out to intertwine with Charles, surprising the professor slightly, but not disturbing him. "Charles. We've wasted so many years fighting. This...going back and changing all of that, is the least that I can do. I will do everything in my power to make sure that I fix this." he says, before leaning forward, pressing a gentle kiss to Charles' forehead.

It's the last thing he remembers before he loses consciousness, and it's memory is drastically different than the emotions that he will feel when he finally awakens.


End file.
